In this edition of For Immediate Release book reviews, Neville and Shel discuss "Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers,? the new book on blogging and businesses by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, to be published in January 2006.

The Book:

"With a foreword by Tom Peters, author of such business bibles as 'In Search of Excellence,' this book uses more than fifty case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and infinitely more credible method of business communication. Blogs are easily linked, allowing information to spread rapidly, and blog readers are active, not passive, participants in the communication. Business and marketing decision-makers will find themselves excited about the possibilities after just a few pages.? (Promotional text.)

The Authors:

Robert ScobleRobert Scoble is a technical evangelist at Microsoft and maintains the popular blog Scobleizer. Besides blogging, Scoble is part of Microsoft's Channel 9 videos team producing educational and evangelist mini-films targeted towards students and professional developers. He is Microsoft's best-known blogger whose blog is read by millions of people annually and is the top-ranking business blog among Technorati's Top 100 blogs.

Shel IsraelShel Israel writes and speaks about blogging, communications and innovation. He also consults with startups as a senior strategy and communications advisor. He is editor-in-chief of Conferenza Premium Reports, the leading newsletter covering technology industry executive conferences. A self-proclaimed recovering publicist, Israel spent more than 20 years as a PR executive specializing in technology startups. He played a key strategic role in introducing some of technology's most successful products, including PowerPoint, FileMaker and Sun Microsystems workstations.